Are there schools that don't use cadavers for anatomy?

[monkeydo]

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I haven't particularly enjoyed anatomy, until today when I came in and without warning there were bodies sawed in half and hanging from their feet by poles. Now I really don't ever want to walk back in that room. I know how some people feel, "you have to actually see where it is so you can treat your patients" and blablabla.

1. I'm not going to be a surgeon
2. I can learn the locations of things without spending 3 hours cutting through ass fat
3. I'm going to med school because I like to help people, not because I enjoy dismembering them once they're dead

So are there any schools out there that don't make you cut up cadavers? Or at least help you cope with the emotional impacts of seeing another human's body sawed apart all over the place?

 

[companyofheroes]

http://www.wired.com/medtech/health/news/2003/05/58733

I'm really glad my school uses cadavers. They're essential to understanding anatomy without rote memorization.

 

[thedelicatessen]

If you are not yet a medical student, I'm really surprised that you were able to simply walk into a room full of med students dissecting cadavers. While it may have appeared harsh, in my med school and many of the other med schools I toured, the cadavers are very highly respected. After the end of gross, each cadaver is individually cremated and given back to the families.

It may seem unnecessary to do gross if you won't be a surgeon, but it is INCREDIBLY important as a physician to really understand the body. A book can only go so far to show you what it really is. If anything else, exposure to cadaver dissection will allow you to further appreciate the importance of a physician's role in caring for people.

As for the emotional aspect, we talk about our feelings and reactions a lot during our dissection time and outside of class as well since gross anatomy is such a big part of our curriculum. While I don't like how the formaldehyde irritates my eyes all the time, gross anatomy is a valuable experience.

 

[Law2Doc]

I haven't particularly enjoyed anatomy, until today when I came in and without warning there were bodies sawed in half and hanging from their feet by poles. Now I really don't ever want to walk back in that room. I know how some people feel, "you have to actually see where it is so you can treat your patients" and blablabla.

1. I'm not going to be a surgeon
2. I can learn the locations of things without spending 3 hours cutting through ass fat
3. I'm going to med school because I like to help people, not because I enjoy dismembering them once they're dead

So are there any schools out there that don't make you cut up cadavers? Or at least help you cope with the emotional impacts of seeing another human's body sawed apart all over the place?

Death and dying is a huge part of medicine, and anatomy helps desensitize folks to the death and blood and guts heavilly involved in medicine at an early juncture. And anatomy is used extensively by non-surgeons as well as surgeons. And you will be doing several months of surgery in med school whether you like it or not. And at some point you will possibly see an autopsy which will make anatomy cadavers seem quite tame. There are schools that don't use cadavers because access to cadavers is a luxury not all schools have. They use whatever state of the art video and models they can get, but it's probably not the same experience, and you lose out on the bonding with classmates that standing over a dead guy for several months can provide.

 

[deleted77919]

If you are not yet a medical student, I'm really surprised that you were able to simply walk into a room full of med students dissecting cadavers.

We give all the interviewees tours of the anatomy lab. If lab is in session (which is almost always) then they will see the cutting going on. This is always preceded by "if you feel uncomfortable or just don't want to get formalin smell on your dress clothes you don't have to do this part of the tour."

 

[Ashers]

We give all the interviewees tours of the anatomy lab. If lab is in session (which is almost always) then they will see the cutting going on. This is always preceded by "if you feel uncomfortable or just don't want to get formalin smell on your dress clothes you don't have to do this part of the tour."

We're not allowed to take the interviewees into the lab at all, even if all the humidors are closed.

When my parents visited me M1 year, I had to get special passes for them.

And what L2D said about the autopsy is right. That was probably the most disgusting thing I saw in med school, and I didn't feel quite right. Before the autopsy, it was removing the face during anatomy. Other than that, not much has phased me.

Edit: btw. I loved anatomy, except for taking off the facial skin.

 

[PeepshowJohnny]

Sorry, but I'm one of those people who believes that gross anatomy/human dissection plans a critical role in medical school. It's usually your first "super hard class", it teaches you to be respectful and work with others, and it exposes you to the not so glamorous stuff. I hate to say it but the people who I've seen hyperventilate and refuse to touch the body...they not only do poorly in anatomy but the rest of med school as well.

 

[KaraKiz]

I haven't particularly enjoyed anatomy, until today when I came in and without warning there were bodies sawed in half and hanging from their feet by poles. Now I really don't ever want to walk back in that room. I know how some people feel, "you have to actually see where it is so you can treat your patients" and blablabla.

1. I'm not going to be a surgeon
2. I can learn the locations of things without spending 3 hours cutting through ass fat
3. I'm going to med school because I like to help people, not because I enjoy dismembering them once they're dead

So are there any schools out there that don't make you cut up cadavers? Or at least help you cope with the emotional impacts of seeing another human's body sawed apart all over the place?

Yeah, I know for sure the Cleveland Clinic only uses prosections. I think Minnesota also does not use cadavers b/c they have no state body donor service.

I can tell you for sure that at UMaryland you will be elbow deep in your cadaver for 10 weeks.

I know it looks and smells completely disgusting, and some parts are, but you really should not choose your school based on this alone. You really do just get over it. You work with the same body for 2 1/2 months and it doesn't stop bothering you, but you learn to deal with it. We have 160 ppl in the class, and we have 1 1/2 weeks left in the class and no body has dropped out b/c anatomy lab sucked.

Gross lab def helps in learning the anatomy, and its also a lot of fun. Its kind of like social time. You go walk around the lab, talk to new ppl, ask them to show you their forearm, like "Hey, I heard you guys have awesome flexors, can you show me them?"

Anyway, its cool. Our school used to cut the bodies in half, but it really bothered a lot of students, so they stopped doing it. We still tie the legs up, but you can't really dissect them well any other way.

You will be fine in anatomy lab. Its like a rite of passage. And it kind of puts a lot of things in perspective. GL with wherever you decide to go.

 

[WiscDoc]

Death and dying is a huge part of medicine, and anatomy helps desensitize folks to the death and blood and guts heavilly involved in medicine at an early juncture. And anatomy is used extensively by non-surgeons as well as surgeons. And you will be doing several months of surgery in med school whether you like it or not. And at some point you will possibly see an autopsy which will make anatomy cadavers seem quite tame. There are schools that don't use cadavers because access to cadavers is a luxury not all schools have. They use whatever state of the art video and models they can get, but it's probably not the same experience, and you lose out on the bonding with classmates that standing over a dead guy for several months can provide.

Is it bad that I never felt any human connection what so ever with these cadavers? I mean even in head and neck where I would be taking out heads from a tank of head prosections and when I poke around in the cadaver's face... I feel nothin. I mean of course I feel respect for the people who donated there bodies, but I find myself many times saying, oh my god that is a human head/plelvis/eye.... but that's all it really is, me saying that to myself to REALLY feel like OMG!, but hasn't happened yet. I took gross in a 7 week course over the summer (5 days a week lecture and lab) and now I am assisting M1s in dissecting (I am a TA). Thoughts?

 

[typeB-md]

This is a great example of very immature behavior. You haven't entered medical school, yet somehow you are a medical curriculum expert.

Do the entire medical community a favor and please just apply to nursing school, instead. The self-righteous, pseudopaternalistic mentality you are displaying is much more fitting in a nurses setting where you can hold your patients' hands and gallop through rivers made of teddy bear tears while licking love-filled lollipops.

Let me explain this for you.

The cadavers were people who donated their bodies for science education because they had a strong-held belief that there was something honorable and rewarding about helping others through their death. Maybe before you pass misguided and ignorant judgments you should familiarize yourself with why the cadavers actually donated their bodies. Maybe read a letter from the family or even from the cadaver him/herself. You might just find out that they actually had great pride in making their decision to submit themselves to the state medical board for "dismemberment."

So take a moment to suspend your unfounded insolence and maybe you'll realize that these individuals proudly made a decision to contribute to society in a way that few will ever be able to. The fact that you are too immature and too inexperienced to appreciate their efforts -- yet feel the need to act as an authority on the matter -- only lets the rest of us know that you're the typical contemptuous zealot who doesn't have enough insight into their own pedantic prejudices to withold their bigotry when analyzing an unfamiliar situation.

peace,
-b

 

[g3pro]

The use of special passes and not allowing non-med people to see the cadavers is actually bogus. Donors give up all privacy rights with regards to their body once they sign up.

 

[typeB-md]

And so we're clear, I'm serious that you shouldn't apply to medical school. The current generation of medical students is still trying to recover from ginormous debacle that bleeding-heart, emotionally irrational *****s have created in medical education. People like you are the reason the majority of your well-adjusted, otherwise normal colleagues are forced to sit through vainglorious, self-aggrandizing courses like "healing and arts" or "reflections of the human interaction." These are the curriculum equivalents of that mildly ******ed student who, during lectures, feels the need to ask pseudorhetorical, self-amorous questions so that he can let the rest of the room know he did in fact find time between saving children from the dangers of unhelmeted bicycling and flying private jets to attend the the anti-fossil fuel global warming rally to read the caption under Robbin's photo C134.4444-1.

The joke's on you, pal... everyone read the metaphorical caption. You'll never get it, though.

Please. Stay. Away.

 

[monkeydo]

This is a great example of very immature behavior. You haven't entered medical school, yet somehow you are a medical curriculum expert.

Do the entire medical community a favor and please just apply to nursing school, instead. The self-righteous, pseudopaternalistic mentality you are displaying is much more fitting in a nurses setting where you can hold your patients' hands and gallop through rivers made of teddy bear tears while licking love-filled lollipops.

Let me explain this for you.

The cadavers were people who donated their bodies for science education because they had a strong-held belief that there was something honorable and rewarding about helping others through their death. Maybe before you pass misguided and ignorant judgments you should familiarize yourself with why the cadavers actually donated their bodies. Maybe read a letter from the family or even from the cadaver him/herself. You might just find out that they actually had great pride in making their decision to submit themselves to the state medical board for "dismemberment."

So take a moment to suspend your unfounded insolence and maybe you'll realize that these individuals proudly made a decision to contribute to society in a way that few will ever be able to. The fact that you are too immature and too inexperienced to appreciate their efforts -- yet feel the need to act as an authority on the matter -- only lets the rest of us know that you're the typical contemptuous zealot who doesn't have enough insight into their own pedantic prejudices to withold their bigotry when analyzing an unfamiliar situation.

peace,
-b

Wow, what an [EDIT]. I really hope you aren't planning on being a physician who interacts with patients. FYI, I am a med student, I've been in gross lab for about 8 weeks now. I haven't really been bothered by the experience until today when I walked in to see that many of the cadavers had been sawed in half through the abdomen and their legs were hanging from poles. Also, some of the cadaver's legs had been sawed off and carried about the lab. Now if that isn't "dismemberment," I don't know what is.

I do have the utmost respect for people who would be so generous as to donate their bodies for my learning. That is precisely why I have a problem with sawing limbs off, because I see that as disrespectful to the dead. And I will be attending the memorial service for the cadavers where I will extend my gratitude to their families.

And before you start calling other people too inexperienced, maybe you should learn a little bit about the roles of nurses, who do not in fact spend their days holding the hands of their patients and galloping around in candy land. As for my ability to survive medical school, I aced the first lab practical. So maybe you are the one who should do the medical community a favor and quit.

 

[Doctor Bagel]

Is it bad that I never felt any human connection what so ever with these cadavers? I mean even in head and neck where I would be taking out heads from a tank of head prosections and when I poke around in the cadaver's face... I feel nothin. I mean of course I feel respect for the people who donated there bodies, but I find myself many times saying, oh my god that is a human head/plelvis/eye.... but that's all it really is, me saying that to myself to REALLY feel like OMG!, but hasn't happened yet. I took gross in a 7 week course over the summer (5 days a week lecture and lab) and now I am assisting M1s in dissecting (I am a TA). Thoughts?

No, I think it's normal. My school tried to encourage some feeling of connection by having us meet the donor's family and learning about the donor, but still, most of the time, it's just a cadaver and you've got work to do. If you felt too much, anatomy would probably be really hard.

To the op, there are schools that do prosection, but I've never heard of school not having cadavers at all. I personally didn't gain much from dissection and probably would have preferred prosection, but I know others feel differently.

 

[WiscDoc]

The use of special passes and not allowing non-med people to see the cadavers is actually bogus. Donors give up all privacy rights with regards to their body once they sign up.

Our school has dissection videos that are available online for anyone to watch (and some pepole now how to download them too). So I guess it's not that big of a deal (in terms of privacy issues and what not).

 

[typeB-md]

Wow, what an [EDIT]. I really hope you aren't planning on being a physician who interacts with patients. FYI, I am a med student, I've been in gross lab for about 8 weeks now. I haven't really been bothered by the experience until today when I walked in to see that many of the cadavers had been sawed in half through the abdomen and their legs were hanging from poles. Also, some of the cadaver's legs had been sawed off and carried about the lab. Now if that isn't "dismemberment," I don't know what is.

I do have the utmost respect for people who would be so generous as to donate their bodies for my learning. That is precisely why I have a problem with sawing limbs off, because I see that as disrespectful to the dead. And I will be attending the memorial service for the cadavers where I will extend my gratitude to their families.

And before you start calling other people too inexperienced, maybe you should learn a little bit about the roles of nurses, who do not in fact spend their days holding the hands of their patients and galloping around in candy land. As for my ability to survive medical school, I aced the first lab practical. So maybe you are the one who should do the medical community a favor and quit.

I'm jr. AOA, so I'm really getting a kick out of your reply.

And again, let me point out your pretentiousness as an MS1 is giving a jr. AOA MS4 a lecture on the role of nurses.

And you aced 1 lab practical? Really?!

 

[Slide]

Wow, what an [EDIT]. I really hope you aren't planning on being a physician who interacts with patients. FYI, I am a med student, I've been in gross lab for about 8 weeks now. I haven't really been bothered by the experience until today when I walked in to see that many of the cadavers had been sawed in half through the abdomen and their legs were hanging from poles. Also, some of the cadaver's legs had been sawed off and carried about the lab. Now if that isn't "dismemberment," I don't know what is.

I do have the utmost respect for people who would be so generous as to donate their bodies for my learning. That is precisely why I have a problem with sawing limbs off, because I see that as disrespectful to the dead. And I will be attending the memorial service for the cadavers where I will extend my gratitude to their families.

And before you start calling other people too inexperienced, maybe you should learn a little bit about the roles of nurses, who do not in fact spend their days holding the hands of their patients and galloping around in candy land. As for my ability to survive medical school, I aced the first lab practical. So maybe you are the one who should do the medical community a favor and quit.

Damn, that's quite a comeback 😛

 

[WiscDoc]

And so we're clear, I'm serious that you shouldn't apply to medical school. The current generation of medical students is still trying to recover from ginormous debacle that bleeding-heart, emotionally irrational *****s have created in medical education. People like you are the reason the majority of your well-adjusted, otherwise normal colleagues are forced to sit through vainglorious, self-aggrandizing courses like "healing and arts" or "reflections of the human interaction." These are the curriculum equivalents of that mildly ******ed student who, during lectures, feels the need to ask pseudorhetorical, self-amorous questions so that he can let the rest of the room know he did in fact find time between saving children from the dangers of unhelmeted bicycling and flying private jets to attend the the anti-fossil fuel global warming rally to read the caption under Robbin's photo C134.4444-1.

The joke's on you, pal... everyone read the metaphorical caption. You'll never get it, though.

Please. Stay. Away.

Finally, somebody saying it as it is! I hope I end up working with people like you in the future. (seriosuly, I like to keep it real).

 

[typeB-md]

[EDIT]
Are you an insect? Did the OP release a captain-save-an-MS1 chemotactic pheromone upon impacting the ground after he was knocked off of his high horse?

 

[rickthetwinkie]

.

 

[typeB-md]

[EDIT]
My previous complaint was with people like the OP who THEN become attendings. There is no disagreement.

Btw, you've got quite the filthy mouth.

 

[typeB-md]

[EDIT]
Carry on.[/QUOTE]
Apology accepted, however...

You have an unsettling obsession with solo male genito-stimulation practices, especially as they pertain to homoerotic sexualty. I'm not a psychiatry resident, but I did do well on my MS3 psych clerkship (as well as stay as a Holiday Inn last night... actually the last several nights... long story for another time) and I would be happy to give online counseling if you would be agreeable.

 

[45408]

Apology accepted, however...

You have an unsettling obsession with solo male genito-stimulation practices, especially as they pertain to homoerotic sexualty. I'm not a psychiatry resident, but I did do well on my MS3 psych clerkship (as well as stay as a Holiday Inn last night... actually the last several nights... long story for another time) and I would be happy to give online counseling if you would be agreeable.

Damn, if this isn't literary masturbation, I don't know what is. Are you done yet?

 

[soeagerun2or]

[EDIT]

Agreed, we need more where that came from

 

[njbmd]

If you disagree with a poster or a comment, feel free to post your disagreement in a professional manner. If you wish to comment on the OPs question, then do so or otherwise, start your own thread with a new subject. Please try to stay on topic.

 

[lsumedgirl]

The use of special passes and not allowing non-med people to see the cadavers is actually bogus. Donors give up all privacy rights with regards to their body once they sign up.

Not so. At my school, they require passes for anyone who isn't affiliated with the school (or has a reason to be in the anatomy dept). But the interviewees are brought by the lab and shown around. This is the only exception to that rule.

 

[WiscDoc]

Not so. At my school, they require passes for anyone who isn't affiliated with the school (or has a reason to be in the anatomy dept). But the interviewees are brought by the lab and shown around. This is the only exception to that rule.

Thinking about this, at my school, we have a program called "DOC" where medical students take a bucket of organs to middle/high school to give sience lessons about the body. The mid/high school students are even allowed to tuch and hold these human organs. I think they also make trips to elementary schools too!

 

[postbacker]

Any other prosection only med schools? Or schools that emphasize other technologies in anatomy? I am curious about schools that do a combo of dissection/prosection/technology based anatomy...

 

[jack12]

Alot of schools in the uk dont use cadavers, you could come over here if your really that worried

 

[achybrachy]

The use of special passes and not allowing non-med people to see the cadavers is actually bogus. Donors give up all privacy rights with regards to their body once they sign up.

I disagree. Donors make their donations in good faith that their bodies will be used to teach future physicians, not to satisfy the morbid curiosity of their friends and family. They are assured as a contingency of the donation that their privacy will be maintained to the extent possible and appropriate and that their remains will be treated respectfully.

 

[F12]

I haven't particularly enjoyed anatomy, until today when I came in and without warning there were bodies sawed in half and hanging from their feet by poles. Now I really don't ever want to walk back in that room. I know how some people feel, "you have to actually see where it is so you can treat your patients" and blablabla.

1. I'm not going to be a surgeon
2. I can learn the locations of things without spending 3 hours cutting through ass fat
3. I'm going to med school because I like to help people, not because I enjoy dismembering them once they're dead

So are there any schools out there that don't make you cut up cadavers? Or at least help you cope with the emotional impacts of seeing another human's body sawed apart all over the place?

If you want to be a doctor, get over it.

I'm pretty sure that cadaver-based anatomy courses are required for accreditation in the US.

 

[KaraKiz]

If you want to be a doctor, get over it.

I'm pretty sure that cadaver-based anatomy courses are required for accreditation in the US.

def not so. check out the cleveland clinic and minnesota (i think minnesota). anyway, CC relies on prosections and minnesota does a lot of computer based simulations and some prosections i think. but they both def do not use cadavers.

but i also think cadavers are an important part of learning anatomy. It was one of the reasons that I decided not to go the CC. I have a cadaver at the school I go to now and I'm glad I made that decision.

 

[cleothecat]

Cadavers smell less, but medical students do not become as emotionally attached to lawyers.

 

[GreenShirt]

def not so. check out the cleveland clinic and minnesota (i think minnesota). anyway, CC relies on prosections and minnesota does a lot of computer based simulations and some prosections i think. but they both def do not use cadavers.

but i also think cadavers are an important part of learning anatomy. It was one of the reasons that I decided not to go the CC. I have a cadaver at the school I go to now and I'm glad I made that decision.

Prosections are done on cadavers, so those would not be examples of schools that don't use cadavers.

I have to say I would be weirded out if I walked into a room and saw a bunch of cadavers hanging from their ankles in different states of dismemberment. It's one thing to see a few cadavers nicely laid out in a tank but a scene that resembles a butcher shop would be a bit disturbing. Do schools normally hang up their cadavers like that? Is it to make it easier to remove portions?

The head of my school would do away with all the cadavers if he had his way because feels the plastic models we have are actually closer to life than the shriveled cadavers. I think he may have a point; looking at the cadavers doesn't elicit the same response in me that seeing a surgery or autopsy does because they don't look real to me.

 

[Hayden2102]

Can I steer this discussion in a slightly different direction?

What do you think about the "it takes up too much time" as an argument against using dissection...

 

[SomeDoc]

Can I steer this discussion in a slightly different direction?

What do you think about the "it takes up too much time" as an argument against using dissection...

I see it as the price I have to pay at times for getting to see the body in it's actual state, which is actually quite a privilege. There are times that I haven't especially enjoyed the dissecting aspect of lab, but these moments are oft overshadowed by the many eureka moments which follow.

 

[Law2Doc]

Can I steer this discussion in a slightly different direction?

What do you think about the "it takes up too much time" as an argument against using dissection...

If it takes forever to dissect a particular part of the body, and thus you become extremely well acquainted with it, it is time well spent.

 

[Hayden2102]

Hmm yeah, but what about if you get a particularly large cadaver that takes a long time to get to the important stuff... do you ever wish you were at home looking through Netter or Gray's?

 

[45408]

Can I steer this discussion in a slightly different direction?

What do you think about the "it takes up too much time" as an argument against using dissection...

There were a lot of structures that I couldn't figure out from the prosections that I understood quite a few structures better after dissecting them. It gave me a much better appreciation for the anatomy above T4. A lot of the abdomen/pelvis was easy to get from a diagram, but not so much the upper body.

 

[PeepshowJohnny]

Hmm yeah, but what about if you get a particularly large cadaver that takes a long time to get to the important stuff... do you ever wish you were at home looking through Netter or Gray's?

Yes it sucks, but again it goes into the "breaking in" portion of anatomy. Yes it sucks spending hours picking fat apart to find some tiny nerve, but it's one of those things that teaches patience (the kind you'll need when you're holding the retractor for hours in surgery third year)

 

[SomeDoc]

Hmm yeah, but what about if you get a particularly large cadaver that takes a long time to get to the important stuff... do you ever wish you were at home looking through Netter or Gray's?

Sometimes, yes. But, I am often reminded first-hand through experience, that dissecting cadavers helps give important clues to tissue textures, tissue dynamics in-situ, and provides me with the opportunity to manipulate viscera on-site to see tissue location relationships- all of which are not possible to be achieved as wholly when studying from a static 2D representation of a 3D structure in Netters, Gray's, etc.

 

[nlax30]

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=458805

 

[Hayden2102]

Sometimes, yes. But, I am often reminded first-hand through experience, that dissecting cadavers helps give important clues to tissue textures, tissue dynamics in-situ, and provides me with the opportunity to manipulate viscera on-site to see tissue location relationships- all of which are not possible to be achieved as wholly when studying from a static 2D representation of a 3D structure in Netters, Gray's, etc.

I understand that. That is what I like about dissection.

Perhaps what I'm advocating is a certain limit to the body-fat percentage of cadavers before they are used in gross lab?

 

[Depakote]

I understand that. That is what I like about dissection.

Perhaps what I'm advocating is a certain limit to the body-fat percentage of cadavers before they are used in gross lab?

There's a rumor that my school has a 400lb cadaver this year. (we start the anatomy block Nov 2nd.) Fortunately, I believe they aren't giving that one to the students, but oh dear Lord.😱

 

[45408]

I understand that. That is what I like about dissection.

Perhaps what I'm advocating is a certain limit to the body-fat percentage of cadavers before they are used in gross lab?

Our school definitely had a weight limit. None of the cadavers were very fat. Besides, cancer tends to suck the bodyfat out of people.

 

[Slide]

I understand that. That is what I like about dissection.

Perhaps what I'm advocating is a certain limit to the body-fat percentage of cadavers before they are used in gross lab?

I can relate to having a not so ideal cadaver; on first look, my group thought our cadaver would be close to ideal judging by its appearance. However, once we dug in, we found a lot more fat than we expected. Not only that, the fat was extremely tough and at times fibrous, making cleaning a tough job. The people with overweight cadavers also had a lot of fat, but theirs came off pretty easily; our fat looked weird (much whiter than it should be), clung on to the cadaver like glue, and made it hard to find structures and that were cutaneous, like nerves, and leaving them intact. Even worse, as our professor told us, "if you have a cadaver that's fatty on the outside, it's going to be fatter inside". On the bright side, we were able to find things like lipomas and the extra effort into cleaning the body helped solidify relationships in the body.

 

[The Angriest Bird]

I absolutely agree with you that "learning from your cadaver" is NOT the most efficient way of learning anatomy, despite what your profs tell you.

I also agree with you that people who don't go into surgery don't have to know anatomy that well. They still have to be pretty good at it.

I think the most important purpose of getting your hands on a cadaver is to desensitize you of the grossness of medicine. In later years, you will see pictures (and feel them) of juicy contaminated gangrene, 50+ warts within one square inch, and spontaneously aborted fetuses. These entities will, without any doubt, make any lay person puke his guts out. It's the cadaver in your anatomy class that enables you to watch these gross pictures while having a wonderful meal.

 

[SomeDoc]

I think the most important purpose of getting your hands on a cadaver is to desensitize you of the grossness of medicine. In later years, you will see pictures (and feel them) of juicy contaminated gangrene, 50+ warts within one square inch, and spontaneously aborted fetuses. These entities will, without any doubt, make any lay person puke his guts out. It's the cadaver in your anatomy class that enables you to watch these gross pictures while having a wonderful meal.

Quoted as I eat a bowl of oatmeal unaffected.

 

[chaser08]

I have to say I would be weirded out if I walked into a room and saw a bunch of cadavers hanging from their ankles in different states of dismemberment. It's one thing to see a few cadavers nicely laid out in a tank but a scene that resembles a butcher shop would be a bit disturbing.

When I was in GA there was this huge trashcan-sized container full of submerged severed heads! There had to be a good 20-30 heads. Definitely the most disturbing thing I ever saw. The container was clear so you could see all of these heads floating there and you could just pull them out as needed. Because of the preservative, they were all red-heads.

There were other containers with limbs but that's not nearly the same.

 

[CindyLou]

Yes it sucks, but again it goes into the "breaking in" portion of anatomy. Yes it sucks spending hours picking fat apart to find some tiny nerve, but it's one of those things that teaches patience (the kind you'll need when you're holding the retractor for hours in surgery third year)

I am by far more patient NOW than I was a few months ago. We just did the split pelvis yesterday and finding that darn pudendal nerve was just sooo difficult and took forver to find!

Sometimes, yes. But, I am often reminded first-hand through experience, that dissecting cadavers helps give important clues to tissue textures, tissue dynamics in-situ, and provides me with the opportunity to manipulate viscera on-site to see tissue location relationships- all of which are not possible to be achieved as wholly when studying from a static 2D representation of a 3D structure in Netters, Gray's, etc.

honestly, i cant agree with you more, if it were for lab i really would not know how to visualize the tissues and organs in-situ because although Netters is simply amazingly accurate and artistic, nothing beats just diving in and doing it yourself